The man Evans police shot and killed when he pointed a gun at them during a standoff early Sunday morning was a Vietnam vet who was haunted by the experience, according to a cousin.
Kenneth B. Yeager, 60, moved to Colorado about a year ago from Laramie, where he grew up, said Connie Silva, a cousin who was raised with him.
Yeager, a truck driver, retired before moving, Silva said. “The VA hospital had him on medications and stuff.”
Yeager was friendly and outgoing, said Silva, 58, who lives in Laramie.
“I can’t even imagine him with a gun. I know he was having problems about what went on in the war,” she said. “I know he was having nightmares about it.”
Yeager was thrown out of an all-night restaurant shortly before the standoff began.
The incident at the Double Clutch Cafe in Evans, south of Greeley, began about 1 a.m., when the man started swearing at a dishwasher who brought him a cup of coffee, said Christy Lucas, a waitress at the truck-stop diner.
Lucas wasn’t on duty at the time and heard the story from other employees when she arrived during the subsequent standoff.
A waiter told Yeager to leave, but he refused. Police came to the cafe and escorted him off the property, Evans police Det. Rita Wolf said.
He drove his blue Ford Bronco to a parking lot across the street, Wolf said. The waiter who told him to leave stepped outside to smoke shortly before 4 a.m.
The man opened fire, and the waiter went back into the cafe and called police.
Police set up a perimeter around the Bronco. They could see the man sitting in the vehicle, and it was clear he had a gun.
They called in a regional SWAT team and began negotiating for his surrender. Yeager allegedly aimed a gun at the police and they opened fire, killing him.
“There is a hole in the building, but it is unconfirmed if it came from the suspect or a SWAT team member,” Wolf said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
